Where have all the climate activists gone?

[brooklynite]

Grist

On November 13, 2018, a group of nearly 200 activists gathered outside Representative Nancy Pelosi’s office, just south of the Capitol Building, and knocked on the door. Without waiting for an answer, they entered and began chanting and singing protest songs.

The crowd was made up of representatives of the roughly year-old Sunrise Movement, and the sit-in at the Minority Leader’s office served as a bit of a coming-out party. One by one, the activists, mostly high school and college students, gave Pelosi’s staff letters demanding a Green New Deal and massive investment of cash into clean energy and initiatives for environmental justice. They were joined by Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; 50 members of the group were eventually arrested.

The event was one of just hundreds of demonstrations that took place during the most active period of climate protest in United States history. Following the inauguration of President Donald Trump — who entered office pledging to roll back dozens of environmental regulations — and the release of yet-another terrifying United Nations climate report, global warming activism exploded across the country. In April 2017, millions protested in a nationwide “March for Science”; the following year, schoolchildren and teenagers across the world, inspired by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, began skipping school to protest the climate crisis. Meanwhile, youth-led groups like the Zero Hour and Sunrise led walk-outs, marches, and sit-ins — inspiring thousands of young people to take to the streets.

But over the past couple of years, the volume of such activism seems to have been turned down. Massive marches and demonstrations have given way to smaller gatherings in Washington, D.C. and New York; some activists have shifted from sit-ins and chanting to working for think tanks or environmental NGOs. Even as heat waves and droughts roast the country — and the United Nations climate reports become more and more dire — the nation and media seem focused on the pandemic, inflation, and the war in Ukraine. For the time being, activists are making fewer headlines.

For many, the past year feels like a betrayal: They rallied around President Joe Biden, despite reservations about his progressive credentials, and have seen few results. Climate legislation has stalled in the Senate, with the midterms threatening the Democrats’ slim majority. Liv Schroeder, a communications director for Zero Hour, said that the last year had demonstrated, more than anything else, that “party alignment does not guarantee climate action.”

[ymetca]

1. Buried the lede

When change is demanded, Big Oil just puts the squeeze on whomever is in the Oval, and the Senate runs skittish.

Ever since Jimmy Carter, this playbook.

[msongs]

2. gone to flowers every one? nt

[Kaleva]

3. IMHO, the battle was lost years ago and the best we can do know try to adapt to what is coming.

Climate change is already here.

It's in the news.

And the situation keeps getting worse with every passing year.

[Calculating]

4. There have been more immediately pressing issues to worry about

Such as the pandemic, war in Europe, a crumbling stock market, and crazy high inflation. Once we get some of these issues properly dealt with then people might start caring about climate again.

[Polybius]

5. It's too late to stop it now

Maybe if all gasoline cars and oil burning factories disappeared tomorrow, but that won't happen.

[Hekate]

6. The Pandemic has certainly put a crimp in big gatherings. So there's that.